Sound



ATTORNEYS.

No Model.)

J. G. LIVINGSTON. soUNDING BOARD.

' N. 578,154r PatentedMar. 2, 1897.

WITNESSES UNITED STATES PATENT EEIcE.

JAMES O. LIVINGSTON, OF LITTLE FALLS, NEIV YORK.

SOUNDENGBBOARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 578,154, dated March 2, 1897.

Application filed September 17, 1896. Serial No. 606,073. (No model.)

T0 all whom, it may concern,-

Be it known that I, J AMES O. LIVINGSTON, of Little Falls, in the county of Herkimer and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Sounding-Board, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved sounding-board for pianos and other musical instruments, and which is simple and durable in construction and arranged to give the instrument a fine quality of tone, both in the treble and in the bass, by having a proper distribution of the hard and soft grained wood in the board, and at the same time making it possible to utilize short pieces of valuable hardgrain boardlumber heretofore wasted.

The invention consists principally of a sounding-board having its treble made of hard-grained dense strips of wood and its bass made of soft and wider grained strips of wood.

rlhe invention also consists of certain parts and details and combinations of the same, as will be fully described hereinafter and then pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this speciiication, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the iigures.

Figure l is a perspective view of the improvement. Fig. 2 is a similar view of a soundingboard as heretofore constructed and Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional side elevation of the end joint between two strips of wood.

Square or rectangular sounding-boards for pianos as heretofore constructed were formed of strips of wood arranged diagonally and joined at their sides by an adhesive substance7 some of the strips being of hard-grained and soine of soft-grained wood, as indicated in Fig. 2. I have found by experiment that a highquality sounding-board should only have hard-grained wood in its treble portion and soft-grained wood in the bass. It is evident that by the old way of constructing a sounding-board, as shown in Fig. 2, a large amount of undesirable hard-grained wood is contained in the bass and a very large amount of short pieces of valuable hard-grained wood is Wasted upon cutting the strips of the hardgrained wood from selected lumber.

Now in order to produce a high-quality sounding-board, and at the same time save a large amount of valuable wood heretofore wasted in the construction of soundingboards, is the object of the invention presently to be described in detail.

As shown in Fig. l, the sounding-board A is formed of strips of wood arranged diagonally in the direction of a line from the left-hand lower corner to the right-hand upper corner, and the strips are fastened together at their sides by glue or other adhesive substance. Some of the strips, preferably the middle strips, are formed in sections A A2, joined together at their ends by a double-bevel lapjoint, as plainly indicatedin Fig. 3. The sections A of the diagonal strips are made of soft wide-grained wood for forming the bass portion of the sounding-board, while the sections A2 are made of hard dense-grained wood and form the treble portion of the sounding-board. As indicated in said Fig. l, the sections A2 may be made in several pieces of such hard dense-grained wood, the pieces being joined together at their ends by the double-bevel lapjoint A3 previously mentioned.

It is evident that by the construction referred to only hard-grained wood is contained in the treble and soft-grained wood in the bass. By thus constructing the sounding-board the sounds of the treble and bass are brought out more distinctly and a purer tone produced, and by the employment of the short pieces of hard wood in the treble I am enabled to easily and cheaply expand or contract the treble, according to the scale of ,the instrument. It will thus be seen that a high quality of sounding-board is produced at a minimum cost.

It will be seen that short pieces of hardgrained lumber heretofore wasted are made use of in constructing a sounding-board, so that it is easier to 'find and assemble the proper wood for the sounding-board than was possible heretofore.

In order to join short strips of soundingboard lumber at an advantage and at a reasonable cost, it is necessary to avoid applying top pressure to each joint. This is completely avoided by using the double-bevel lap-joint shown in 3 and above referred to. When the ends of the pieces or strips are pressed IOC) together', one bevel presses against the other, so as to draw the joint without requiring top pressure.

It is understood that instead of the doublebevel lap-joint other well-known forms of joints may be employed. It is also evident that the sections A of the diagonal strips and made oi' soft wide-grained wood may be made in several pieces joined together the same as the pieces of the sections A2.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. As a new article of manufacture, a sounding-board for musical instruments, havin g its treble formed of hard wood, and its bass of soft wood, as set forth.

2. As a new article of man utact u re, a sound ing-board for m usieal instruments, provided with strips, each formed of a hard and a soft wood, the hard wood being at the treble end of the strip and the soft wood at the bass end thereof, as set forth.

3. As a new article of man ufacturc a sounding-board for musical instruments, comprising a plurality of diagonally-arranged strips, some of which are made of a hard and a soft wood, the hard wood of the said strips bein at the treble ends and the soft wood at the bass ends, as specified.

at. As a new article of manufacture a sounding-board 'l'or musical instruments, comprising a plurality of diagonally-arranged strips, some of the strips being formed of a hard and a soft wood, the soft wood being at the bass ends of the strips and the hard wood at the treble ends and formed of a plurality of sections, as set forth.

5. As a new article of manufacture, a soundin g-board with the line of joints running `from the left-hand lower corner to the right-hand upper corner, and having its treble .made ot hard-grained dense strips of wood, substantially as shown and described.

G. A sounding-board formed oi' strips of wood secured together at their sides and arranged diagonally, some of the strips being made in sections ljoined endwise and ol a dii'- ferent grain and density, substantially as shown and described.

7. A sounding-board formed of strips of wood secured together at their sides and arranged diagonally, some o1. the strips being made in sections joined endwise and of a dit'- ierent grain and density, the sections having a double-bevel lap-joint, substantially as shown and described.

JAMES C. LIVINGS' ON Witnesses:

u. C. MAGILL, J. J. LivrNosroN. 

